greas / cabhaig – hurry
Despite the clichés, there are Gaelic words meaning "hurry up", especially when rushing to catch a ferry. In modern Gaelic, there are two words used for "hurry".
Cabhaig is pronounced Kaffack and means "hurry" as in the noun. One might say of a person – Bha cus cabhag air – pronounced Vah koos kaffack air – literally "There was too much of a hurry upon him", and meaning "He was in too much of a hurry". Cabhagach is the associated adjective.
When telling a person to "hurry up", use greas ort, or greasaibh oirbh for plural or extra politeness. This literally means: "hurry on you". You may have seen signs at some towns and shops, saying: Greasaibh air ais, meaning "Haste ye back".
The Gaels used to have another word for "hurry": diofar or deifir. This word is now only found in literature and is uncommon in the spoken language, although Irish Gaelic uses Dean deifir to mean "hurry up". It sounds very similar to the word diofar, which means "difference" in the modern language.
This writer recalls being on an Irish for Scottish Gaelic speakers' course in Connemara, and after being told that there was only about 30 minutes to catch a ferry was told in Irish: Dean deifir. This sounded just too similar to the modern Gaelic expression Dè’n diofar? which means "What’s the difference?" or "Hey it’s no big deal".
That linguistic confusion was cleared up amid a mad rush to the pier.
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